Artwork – Circles and Wheels

This is an oil painting by Jose Ivan Ibarra (Woman with Umbrella) – seeing it made me want to write a story of how that woman got to that umbrella on that beach on that day – and that’s how Jolene’s story (the woman of the Woman With Yellow Umbrella – short story #1) got told.

Story 2 – Still Life With Fruit

The sun, the stars, a whole lot of fruit, and a skateboard.

Story 3 – Untitled #27

An exercise in anonymous, shocking white on white – perhaps a way of showing Lady Chick-A-Dee-Dee’s refusal to be labelled and at the same time stand out in a crowd.

Story 4 – Persian Miniature

A small Persian painting floating on a sea of light and used oxygen canisters.

Story 5 – Night Streets

Rainy, urban streets seen through a drunken, desperate haze.

Story 6 – Bus Stop

A blurry, indistinct view of life and a bus stop.

Story 7 – The Nostril of the Archangel

The archangel Michael surveying the world on a stormy evening.

Story 8 – Snow on Sagebrush

Splintered memories of a snow-covered meadow from decades before.

Story 9 – Two Meadows

A spring meadow – the kind with fairies.

Story 10 – New Moon

Ghosts and bowling and the full moon.

Story 11 – Babushkas

The painful opening of a series of matryoshkas – the Russian nesting dolls – but I call them Babushkas (Russian for grandma) – since it’s a kind of grandmother we’re opening up in this story.

Story 12 – Circles and Wheels

A book that is all circles – a kind of moebius strip of a narrative – the symbol on the book’s cover is the ouroboros – a snake biting its own tail – a sign of infinity.